History Of The Development Of Naval Education

It was a natural development of the appointment of a Naval Officer as Director of Education and Head of the Instructor Branch that increasing attention was paid to the naval potentialities of the Instructor Officer and Schoolmaster. The more complex operational requirements of the Fleet led to the expansion of their duties, and, as at this time there was keen competition in civil life for good teaching and technical appointments, the academic and personal qualities of new entries rose considerably. All new entries were required to have qualities of an officer capable of taking an integral part in the working and fighting of the ship. Among other things he became responsible to the Commanding Officer to assist with his scientific knowledge in solving any problems that might arise. One of the special commitments for which he became responsible was Bridge Plotting Officer and so he developed into a key member of the team which later became the Action Information Organisation.

Meanwhile the growing requirements for technical instruction and the need for a close and practical relation between education ashore and afloat brought about a steady extension of naval instructional duties. In 1939 the Colleges at Portsmouth, Greenwich and Keyham, the Boys' Training Establishments and the various Specialist Schools (Signals, Gunnery, Navigation, Anti-Submarine, Mechanical Training, etc.) all contained a significant proportion of officers of the Instructor Branch.

This task was divided between the Instructor and Schoolmaster Branches in a way similar to that originally conceived - Instructor Officers dealt with the training of officers and Schoolmasters were responsible for the instruction of ratings. In 1936 the Instructor Branch numbered 78 and the Schoolmaster Branch 204 officers and approximately half of the officers of both branches were in complement billets afloat at any one time. During the last war the educational work of the Navy continued to be founded on the technical requirements of the Fleet, the need to maintain morale and to afford broader educational facilities, especially to those who joined under the National Service Acts. The wisdom of having a body of naval officers highly qualified in mathematics and science was amply demonstrated in the rapidly expanding sphere of radio and radar. The task of training the very large number of personnel in these subjects both as operators and maintainers was undertaken mainly by officers of the Instructor and Schoolmaster Branches. They were responsible for instruction in the theoretical aspects and the equipment themselves. The latter commitment largely passed to the Electrical Branch on its formation in 1946.

Towards the end of the war problems of resettlement and "Hostilities Only" officers and ratings necessitated consideration of further education arrangements. A wide variety of courses varying from pre-University and professional refreshers to instruction in skilled trades were arranged. These courses were organised and conducted by the Education Branches with the assistance of qualified EVT officers and ratings. In 1945 there were about 1,000 officers and several hundred ratings engaged on this release work.

The present tasks of the Instructor Branch have naturally evolved from the various commitments outlined above and, in particular, from those that developed in the immediate pre-war years and during the war itself. The historic distinction, however, between officer instructors and rating instructors which was reflected in the structure of the two education branches was largely blurred on the formation of the modern Instructor Branch in 1946 by the amalgamation of the Instructor and Schoolmaster Branches. Nevertheless a "Dagger" distinction was given to those officers who possessed First or Second Class Honours degrees or their equivalent and the formation of two lists within the Branch - List A and List B - in 1957 gave recognition that the historic division of duties had some merit.